Verizon iPhone launch day: My experience on the frontline

Let me start this off by saying that I live in Maryland. My experience and my opinion, will largely come from what I have observed in Maryland, as well as conversations with other bloggers doing on-site interviews in other locations across the US.

Verizon has already seen tremendous adoption of the iPhone 4 on their network. Shattering sales records, blowing away even extreme sales forecasts, and pushing ship dates to well over a week out in the first few days. If you were smart and got yours at 3AM on the 7th, you’ve likely already had your iPhone 4 for a day or two. If you were not a Verizon customer, today was your day.

It was anticipated that lines would encase stores, fill parking lots, and generally be quite significant. I wanted to get a feel for how non-Verizon customers were looking at the Verizon iPhone 4, so I left my house at 5AM into sub-20 degree weather and went to see how excited Maryland was about the iPhone 4 on Verizon!

[click to enlarge]

When I arrived at the Timonium store, I was greeted warmly by several Verizon employees, then given hand warmers and a red Verizon beanie to stay warm. The line was organized and the staff, what seemed like some 30 employees, was eager to help the iPhone hungry masses. Employees were canvassing the line, making sure customers would be able to get in and out of the store quickly by handing them cards where they could fill out account information and see some plan pricing points and accessory examples.

One employee was walking around with a display of the available Verizon iPhone 4 cases, though none seemed eager to explain that if the user hoped to avoid the dreaded deathgrip, they might want to get one. Every employee at the store was incredibly friendly and knowledgeable, all the way up to store manager David Neubeiser. David and his team assured me that the store was fully stocked, and they were ready to handle any volume of customers today. As I looked down the line, I thought they may have a few extra left over if this morning was a sign of the day.

It wasn’t the hungry throng of eager buyers I was hoping for, but the number quickly grew. By the time the store had opened, the number had grown to 25. Customers were ushered in one by one and handed off to a specialist who was their dedicated helper until the experience was over, an impressive tactic compared to stories of Apple Stores with a paltry 4 or 5 employees on hand.

It was bitterly cold this morning, so I doubt that the lack of an opening rush was an example of how the day would go. After all, Verizon had already seen such explosive growth online from their own customers, right? As it turns out, while conducting brief interviews with those waiting in line, most of them were Verizon customers whose upgrade had come.

There were a handful of users switching from Sprint, and even less from T-Mobile. These weren’t users with brand new Android or Blackberries either. Most of those in line were moving from feature phones or older smartphones, like the Behold 2 on T-Mobile or the Touch Pro on Sprint. What really caught me by surprise was only one AT&T iPhone user arrived, late, to move to Verizon. Either way, each customer was handled quickly, and everyone left the store happy, although the gifts being handed out by Verizon was a little strange.

Across the blogosphere I heard similar stories. Apple stores that were basically empty at launch, and while I have seen some pictures of lines longer than my store, there haven’t been many. I see this as a shining example of the power of online purchasing now. Why go out in the freezing cold, when I can just overnight it? I think the storefronts this morning were servicing those uncomfortable with online buying, combined with those either bored, or who had to have it right that second. The paradigm shift from the storefront focus to the web store has been seen in many industries, and the cell phone industry may well be seeing it’s first real dive into that shift.

At another Verizon location this morning, the storefront launch was described as being smaller than the last Blackberry launch or the Droid X launch, although we’ve clearly seen the web sales blow both of those away. I suspect the storefront based adoption of the iPhone 4 will be one of consistency. As users on the other carriers come off contract, the growth will continue at a steady rate, rather than drop off like we’ve seen with other devices.

It could also be the result of educated user waiting for the Verizon iPhone 5, though I doubt that group is quite as large as the tech community may believe. Either way you look at it, the Verizon iPhone launch day has happened. It wasn’t a “gamechanger” but still significant, and Verizon’s involvement with Apple will no doubt help to push forward the state of the art, and allow innovation to continue at such an explosive rate.